Did you know that surveys have shown that only 40% of apartment prospects complete the leasing process within 30 days? Even though I’m not a math genius, I do know that this means that 60% of your prospects will not complete the process within 30 days!
It may take your prospects some time to find the perfect home!
Yet, haven’t you noticed that leasing professionals often focus specifically and only on the people who are looking to move quickly, while ignoring (whether intentional or not) those who aren’t moving for some time.
Think about it … when someone comes in to your office and says s/he wants an apartment four months from now, isn’t there a part of you that gets irritated, upset, angry and/or frustrated? I know I did! I remember once I had someone who wanted to view an apartment, in the middle of a snowstorm-and we were in the process of closing our office early so that we could all get home before the worst part of the storm hit us.
Well, my entire staff was assisting other people so I helped this gentleman, who wanted to view several apartments, some on the other side of the community. The thing is, he wasn’t looking to move until at least eight months away! Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about being frozen solid and covered in snow, helping someone who wasn’t looking to move for some time. So, if you feel this way, I GET IT!!
That being said…
If you’re only focusing on the people who need to move this weekend, or next week, or within the next 30 days, you are missing out on 60% of your potential new residents!
So, what should you do?
Follow-up with all of our prospects! I know, I know, you’ve heard this before and this is nothing new to you. However, in my experience where most leasing professionals fall short is that they don’t follow-up consistently. I cannot tell you how many shops I’ve read where the leasing pro did everything well, but didn’t follow-up! (And yes, this happened to me a few times as well. I finally got tired of getting talked to and/or missing out on bonuses because I didn’t follow-up!)
But, wait…there’s more!
Now that I’ve given you the reminder to follow-up, this is actually the action item I want you to work on…develop a follow-up strategy! I believe that most people that want to consistently follow-up still en up not doing so because they don’t have a strategy to do so. So step one for you is to develop a strategy.
Here are some key steps I would recommend:
- Block out specific times on your calendar each day to follow-up, and then treat that like an appointment.
- Ask your co-workers to “cover” the phone calls or walk-in traffic (if you work in a multi-person office) for you while you follow-up so that it gets done. Of course, this means that you should cover for them while their doing their follow-up! Incidentally, this period can be something as short as ten minutes, it doesn’t have to be a huge block of time. (I know, you’re busy!)
- Contact people based on when they said they were moving in. For example, at the last community I managed, we did two initial follow-ups with prospects (one within 24 hours and then another within 72 hours) and after that the frequency in which we followed-up depending on their move-in date. Someone who is moving in sooner should receive more follow-ups from you than someone who isn’t moving for six months!
- Remind yourself that “following-up is as important as taking someone on tour!”
Let me know how this works for you! What are some things you’ve done to follow-up consistently!
